What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
Bmblbzzz
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by Bmblbzzz »

atoz wrote:I posted this because it's a classic example of bike as "boy toy" rather than as practical sustainable transport.

Plenty of "girl toys" too. The desire to ride fast is by no means purely masculine.
PH
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by PH »

atoz wrote:I posted this because it's a classic example of bike as "boy toy" rather than as practical sustainable transport.

If you go to the front page of Evans website
https://www.evanscycles.com/
You'll see this promotion covers loads of bikes of all styles. The poster you've linked to shows a bike that they'll know appeals to many of their buyers, it'd be daft of them not to use it. Last time I was in Evans (Nottingham) a sales assistant was trying to gently persuade someone away from a road bike towards something more practical, it didn't sound like they were succeeding and of course they want the sale.
People buying and using bikes is a good thing, it would be a better thing if people weren't so critical of others choices. That goes both ways, I get different reactions depending on what I'm wearing and the bike I'm on, it'd be laughable if it wasn't so sad.
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foxyrider
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by foxyrider »

PH wrote:
atoz wrote:I posted this because it's a classic example of bike as "boy toy" rather than as practical sustainable transport.

If you go to the front page of Evans website
https://www.evanscycles.com/
You'll see this promotion covers loads of bikes of all styles. The poster you've linked to shows a bike that they'll know appeals to many of their buyers, it'd be daft of them not to use it. Last time I was in Evans (Nottingham) a sales assistant was trying to gently persuade someone away from a road bike towards something more practical, it didn't sound like they were succeeding and of course they want the sale.
People buying and using bikes is a good thing, it would be a better thing if people weren't so critical of others choices. That goes both ways, I get different reactions depending on what I'm wearing and the bike I'm on, it'd be laughable if it wasn't so sad.


Been there, done that, sometimes successful, sometimes not - only ones that came back with issues were those who insisted on inappropriate machine against advice (too big/small as much as style!) the issue with any bike advertising is getting the right message to the right group of people, most of it is aimed at the converted which may well garner reactions like this thread.

As regards reaction out on the road, I witness this all the time. A lot of people equate something with mudguards as inferior to their plaything add in my plain jackets etc and clearly i'm not worthy of a return wave. As soon as i'm on my own plaything in skin shorts etc it's a different matter. Catches some of them out that I see regularly when I switch between the tour/winter bikes and the no mudguard machines!

Personally I give everyone a nod/wave/greeting as conditions dictate, its mostly newbie weekend warriors who ignore you. When I passed a bunch of them the other week toting guards and a pannier I think they were shocked into silence!
Convention? what's that then?
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Tangled Metal
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by Tangled Metal »

I've heard of a lycra clad MAMIL reporting that a postie overtook him (left him for dust) on a royal mail post bike on a hill. Another poster from the area pointed out that there was a semi pro cyclist who was rather good in the area who's a postman.

It's the engine not the bike in many cases. My engine isn't that good so I'm happy with my sedentary recumbent and London road bike. They kind of match my performance.
brooksby
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by brooksby »

Tangled Metal wrote:My local Evans has a downstairs with the first bikes you got as you go in (ahead of you) are hybrids. Very practical bikes. To the right are so called endurance road bikes, to the left are kids bikes and used to be gravel / adventure / all road bikes but they changed it and I can't remember what to. Behind the block of hybrids and into the back room are mtb bikes. Upstairs are the main road bike collection with a handful of tourers.

Basically the most prominent bikes are probably the most useful to ppl new to cycling or who want a commuter / utility bike. Certainly not a boy toy product.


My local Evans has the kids bikes, e-bikes, and singlespeeds nearest the door as you go in, then a few hybrids a bit further back, then the MTBs/fatbikes, then the road bikes, then (finally) the tourers (all three of them, usually) tucked away in a corner by the changing rooms.
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pjclinch
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by pjclinch »

I'm not in advertising, but I suspect that if you tried to create an advert that was all things to all people by covering every possible base with every possible bike style you'd end up failing to see the tree for the woods. It's a simple message: old bike in, new bike out.

So it says that the cycling trade does what most other trades do with their advertising, which is keep it relatively straightforward.

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Cugel
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by Cugel »

Mike Sales wrote:Cugel, I am as sceptical as anyone about the silly vagaries of fashion. I see the latest "new" old idea is marketed as gravel bikes. We used to have rough stuff, and then mountain bikes.
But I think you attribute too much power to Evans's advertising, and perhaps to the coordination between the various commercial interests. It is surely a symbiotic relationship between the fickle desire of the public for novelty and the desire of the trade to make money out of it.
Look at the vogue, fading now I think, for "fixies". I don't detect that this was instigated by the manufacturers, though they hurried to cash in.
I don't think the public is quite as sheep like, nor the advertisers so powerful that we can be led around so easily.
The public likes novelties, and I am sure you can give us a time line. I used to sell bikes, and I can assure you that it is nigh on impossible to make money trying to sell against the trend of fashion.


Your last sentence says it all. If "selling against the trend of fashion" is "nigh on impossible" then I feel that is a sure & certain sign that many of the customers involved are indeed "sheep like" and unable to decide for themselves.

You try to salvage the reputation of these customers as free-choosing humans rather than herded baa-baas by suggesting that fashions emerge spontaneously from the flock rather than from the nips at their egos by advertising-collies. That certainly used to be true some decades ago; but the Svengalis of producer-consumer land have long ago learnt how to trigger "the public desire for novelty" simply by designing the novel then surrounding it with the various glamours so attractive to we humans.

Fixies as a fashion, as I recall, were initially a bit "edgy" as they were ridden by courier-warriors in The City. Before that they were used for decades by small sections of the cycling public, mostly daft old racing pharts like me. The Svengalis noted the "edgy-courier-warrior" appeal and so began their campaign to make the things widely popular........

Currently we still have the MAMIL and it's variants, Svengalied into thinking they are in some sort of race and therefore a Wiggo or even a Saga. All they have to do is buy the right bike, clothes, gizmos and virtual reality app. Baaaaaaa! :-)

Cugel, sliding from sceptic into cynic.
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pwa
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by pwa »

On my last few visits to Evans I have walked out without finding anything suitable. Advertising is only useful if you have things the customer can be persuaded to want.

Rear lights. Cheap and nasty rubbish.

Casual clothing. Next to nothing. Okay for lycra, but not casual. One sort of baggy short. Humvees. Nothing else. No casual shorts for women. I don't feel like going back there for another disappointment.
Bmblbzzz
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by Bmblbzzz »

The last time I used Evans was a little under two years ago. I ordered an item from them to collect at my local branch. When it arrived, it turned out they'd got the wrong item. :roll:
Bonefishblues
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by Bonefishblues »

Dear Evans.

Your advertising has got lots of people talking about it.

Good job!

Yours,

A Forum member
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pjclinch
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by pjclinch »

Just seen another version of the same add, and this time "the bike you want" is a Brompton. So are the Sensible Crew happier with that?
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The utility cyclist
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by The utility cyclist »

Whine, whine whine!
If it means people are going to get that old ratty thing out the garage/shed they haven't ridden in years and actually get on a bike, even if the % who keep on cycling isn't that big this is still a good thing.
What type of bike someone buys is none of your business, you should be applauding efforts to get people to cycle not attacking the retailers.

It would seem some/many on here just love a good whinge over nothing that doesn't even effect them in the slightest in any case, are you actually for more people cycling and encouraging them to do so or are you just a bunch of bike snobs who'll stick your nose in to other people's business for no good reason?
No wonder some are put off cycling with this kind of bilge circulating! :x
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The utility cyclist
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by The utility cyclist »

Bmblbzzz wrote:The last time I used Evans was a little under two years ago. I ordered an item from them to collect at my local branch. When it arrived, it turned out they'd got the wrong item. :roll:

I ordered from Evans late last year and got exactly what I ordered, this was 8 items. I don't buy regularly but millions do without a problem.
Did they rectify the matter in any case?
Bmblbzzz
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Turned out they didn't have the item I'd ordered in their warehouse, despite it being supposedly in stock, so they gave me my money back. I later found it in Halfords!
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horizon
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Re: What does this ad say about the cycling trade..

Post by horizon »

The utility cyclist wrote:No wonder some are put off cycling with this kind of bilge circulating! :x


To be fair, the OP was lamenting the denigration of what looked like a useful bike in favour of a perhaps more limited but more superficially attractive (in his view) model. I get a regular dose of Evans' marketing in my Inbox and actually it's pretty broad ranging despite what others have said that Evans like most businesses is likely to follow trends. I have been in Evans a couple of times recently and in fact it's a pretty mainstream shop - it even does have a couple of CdF tourers. It's impossible to cover all areas in cycling these days but I would certainly point a new cyclist in their direction. After all, there's always Halfords .... :mrgreen: :lol: :lol:
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